Computer System Design

The next generation of computer system designers will be less concerned about details of processors and memories, and more concerned about the elements of a system tailored to particular applications. These designers will have a fundamental knowledge of processors and other elements in the system, but the success of their design will depend on the skills in making system-level tradeoffs that optimize the cost, performance and other attributes to meet application requirements. This book provides a new treatment of computer system design, particularly for System-on-Chip (SOC), which addresses the issues mentioned above. It begins with a global introduction, from the high-level view to the lowest common denominator (the chip itself), then moves on to the three main building blocks of an SOC (processor, memory, and interconnect). Next is an overview of what makes SOC unique (its customization ability and the applications that drive it). The final chapter presents future challenges for system design and SOC possibilities.

Michael J. Flynn, Emeritus Professor of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University, is Chairman of the Board and Senior Advisor to Maxeler Technologies. Previously, he worked at IBM in the areas of computer organization and design. His best-known technical work includes the SIMD/MIMD classification of computer organization, and the first detailed discussion of superscalar design. Professor Flynn is a Fellow of the IEEE and a Fellow of the ACM.

Wayne Luk is Professor of Computer Engineering in the Department of Computing at Imperial College London, where he teaches computer architecture and custom computing. He leads the Computer Systems Section as well as the Custom Computing Research Group, which is currently focusing on theory and practice of reconfigurable systems and their design automation. He has worked with many companies including Altera, J.P. Morgan, Nokia, Sharp, Sony, and Xilinx. Professor Luk is a Fellow of the IEEE and a Fellow of the BCS.